There are many heroes serving in the Congress of the United States and Joe Pitts, a congressman from Pennsylvania, is one of them. Almost as an afterthought, at the very end of his Congressional Biography it says, "... Flew 116 combat missions in his three tours of duty during Vietnam War." Joe Pitts served as a Captain in the Air Force.

But I don’t refer to Joe Pitts as a hero for his service in the military in Vietnam. Joe Pitts has been a tireless warrior for family values, first in the Pennsylvania State Legislature and now in the United States Congress. He is a man of seemingly endless energy. In Congress he leads the Religious Prisoners’ Congressional Task Force. This group of Congressmen work to free men and women who are imprisoned because of their religious faith all over the world. He also sits on the Helsinki Commission, an agency dedicated to promoting religious liberty. He is also a founding member and Chairman of the Congressional Task Force on Fatherhood Promotion. This congressional organization promotes ideas and legislation to keep fathers in the home with their children.

Congressman Pitts is also the Chairman of the Values Action Team of which I am a member. As chairman he has the responsibility of bringing together a variety of social conservative groups each week when Congress is in session and trying to get them to focus on issues that affect all Americans. The Values Action Team works on legislation such as adoption, the partial-birth abortion ban, parental notification and many other issues. He authored the Dollars to the Classroom Act which would have sent federal education dollars directly to local schools for use rather than letting the bureaucrats in Washington spend it. As a former math and science teacher, Congressman Pitts knows where the money on education should be spent, and that is at the local level. He also introduced in the 106th Congress the Women and Children’s Resources Act, which provides fee-for-service reimbursements to life-affirming organizations, such as crisis pregnancy centers, maternity homes and adoption services that assist women facing unplanned pregnancies.

I have worked with Congressman Pitts on numerous occasions. Because I am a member of the Values Action Team, I meet with the congressman virtually every week when Congress is in session. I also run into him at virtually every event in Washington and elsewhere that has anything to do with the social conservative cause.

When thousands showed up for the 70th birthday of Pat Robertson in Washington, Joe Pitts was there. At a fund raising event for home schoolers in Washington recently, I ran into Joe Pitts again. At a pro-life going away dinner for Congressman Coburn, Joe Pitts was there. In fact, when I attended the Faith and Freedom rally during the Republican Convention I ran into Joe Pitts there as well. He had to excuse himself early to go speak at a Baptist Church.

I have written about several men and women in these pages who serve in Washington for the social conservative cause. These are true patriots who walk the lives they talk. I can honestly say that Congressman Joe Pitts is one of those. He is a patriot, a hero and a man close to the heart of God.

During his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, Vice President Al Gore made it clear that he would not appoint any pro-life Supreme Court justices. This is his exact quote:

"And let there be no doubt: I will protect and defend a woman's right to choose. The last thing this country needs is a Supreme Court that overturns Roe v. Wade."

During the Republican Convention the media spread the word that Governor Bush may have a "litmus test" for federal judges, that he may appoint only those that are pro-life. Having a "litmus test" for a judge, the media said, was wrong.

But here in the acceptance speech for the nomination of President of the United States, Democrat Al Gore makes it clear in his own words that he will indeed have a "litmus" test for the judges, particularly the Supreme Court justices, whom he appoints. Where is the outrage of the media?

In 1983 Al Gore was a Senator, not Vice President of the United States. In a letter to his constituents he wrote:

"As you know, I have strongly opposed federal funding of abortions. In my opinion, it is wrong to spend federal funds for what is arguably the taking of a human life." Later in the same letter Gore states, "It is my deep personal conviction that abortion is wrong. I hope that some day we will see the current outrageously large number of abortions drop sharply."

Before 1986, according to the Wall Street Journal, Al Gore voted pro-life 80% of the time. Suddenly in 1986 he changed his votes to be 100% with the pro-abortionists. This was not, however, the first flip flop for Al Gore.

In 1973 as a student at Vanderbilt University he said that he agreed with Roe v. Wade and that a woman did have a "right to choose" an abortion. He has said of his feelings in 1973, "...going through it very carefully at the time. It made sense to me and, even during the years I opposed federal funding, I continued to support Roe v. Wade."

Three years later while running for office in rural Tennessee Al Core told the Nashville Banner, "I don’t believe a women’s freedom to live her own life, in all cases, outweighs the fetus’s right to life."

It is clear from published reports that in 1973 Al Gore was pro-abortion. Then when in ran for public office in a conservative area of Tennessee he became pro-life around 1976. He remained pro-life as a member of the House and the Senate until be decided to run for president in the 1988 primary. He changed suddenly and drastically back to a pro-abortion position in 1986 in preparation for that election. In interviews today he says that he has "always" supported Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to "choose".

Abortion is not the only flip flop for Gore. He supported second amendment rights until the late 1980’s and in 1985 was considered a "friend" by the NRA. He even opposed a waiting period to purchase guns in the 1980’s.

Except for a lengthy article in the Wall Street Journal, the liberal media has virtually ignored the flip flops on both abortion and guns of the Democrat candidate for President.

Now we see the Democrat vice presidential candidate doing flip flops at a furious pace. Just this year Senator Lieberman was for school vouchers. In 1995 he voted to create six federally funded vouchers projects, saying "There are too many ways in which the public school system has failed to deliver adequately for our kids." Now Lieberman says he supports Al Gore’s stand against vouchers.

But, Senator Lieberman’s switch on affirmative action is more astounding. Just one year ago he was against affirmative action and said these words on the Senate floor: "Affirmative action is dividing us in ways its creators could never have intended because most Americans who do support equal opportunity and are not biased don’t think it is fair to discriminate." Now Lieberman claims that his statements against affirmative action were, "...taken out of context." In a statement to the press he said, "I have supported affirmative action, I do support affirmative action and I will support affirmative action."

It seems that Senator Lieberman has learned from his new boss fast ... Never say you changed your mind, just change it and say your new position has always been your position.

Where is the media on Senator Lieberman’s flip flops? Nowhere to be seen or heard. Why? Because the media is principally made up of social liberals and in their eyes other social liberals can do no wrong. If a conservative preacher gets a divorce, it is front page news; if a liberal gets divorced it never makes the paper at all. There is a double standard in American journalism today.

Take the case of former President George Bush back in 1980. He was never really "pro-choice" but said that Roe v. Wade was the law of the land and he would uphold it. Then Ronald Reagan held a screening of "Silent Scream," an anti-abortion movie that literally showed how abortion killed from the child’s perspective in the womb. This film so struck George Bush that he announced publicly that the film had changed his mind and heart and he would now fight against abortion. The news media called him a hypocrite and accused him of changing his mind for political reasons.

Where is the media outcry now of hypocrisy over the flip-flops of Al Gore on abortion or of Lieberman on school vouchers? It is up to smaller publications such as the William J. Murray Report to get the truth out. If America depended only upon the liberal controlled national media, we would be living in the brave new world of liberalism Gore and Lieberman envision. In that brave new world, baby whales need government protection while human babies get killed at government hospitals. In that brave new world of liberalism, trees are more important than human lives and people in single family homes are the enemy of the environment and so must be herded into already overpopulated urban areas to stop ‘urban sprawl’.

Congressman Jay Dickey (R-AR) was the author of a funding amendment to stop destructive experimentation on human fetuses. The Dickey Amendment, as it is called, simply stated that no federal funds could be used to experiment on or destroy a human embryo or fetus. The Department of Health under the Clinton Administration has thumbed its nose at the amendment which was passed into law several years ago, and federally funded research continues today.

The liberals have their arguments ... They need stem cells from the human embryos to cure diseases like Alzheimer’s. The problem with the statement is that it is not true. They experiment, I believe, just because they like to play God and kill babies. They use Alzheimer’s as an excuse because the idea plays well with the nation’s elderly.

The truth is that stem cells from embryos or fetuses can never work because of rejection. Stem cells from an adult’s own body will work. The science in fact is very clear that stem cells from adult human bone marrow can be made into nerve cells.

In a study by researchers at Robert Johnson Medical School, human bone-marrow stem cells were taken from adults, treated in culture and converted to nerve cells. The results have been published in the Journal of Neuroscience Research. One of the researchers, Dr. Ira Black, said, "These cells grow so robustly that we have trouble keeping up with them."

For treatments, the bone-marrow of the individual who needs the nerve cells would be used so no rejection would occur. Then why do President Clinton and his minions insist on violating the law passed by the Congress and continue to use federal money to harvest stem cells from embryos, thus killing them? Would President Clinton authorize federal money to operate on and destroy the embryos of whales? Lets face it ... To liberals, trees and animals are far more important than humans.

For some time a sign has been erected on the lawn of the Lincoln Park United Methodist Church in Washington, DC to advertise events. There seemed to be no zoning problem with the sign until this year when the church used it to advertise a May 30th sermon against homosexuality. A few days before the service city workers showed up and dismantled the sign saying that it violated zoning rules. If the sign had been in front of a homosexual bar in the infamous Dupont Circle area of Washington, DC would it have been removed by city workers? Probably not. Liberals don’t like freedom of speech unless it is their speech.

Can you imagine the National Park Service telling liberal CNN founder Ted Turner that they were going to sue him to hand over land next to a National Park? No. But what about people who are not rich liberals and who do own land next to a National Park?

The National Park Service is actually trying to force friars and nuns who are members of a 100-year-old order to relinquish their land along the New York Appalachian Trail. Because the friars refused to sell twenty acres to the National Park Service, they are now threatened with eminent domain proceedings to seize the land from them. Under pressure from the Congress the Clinton/Gore operated National Park Service agreed to suspend legal action for now. However, the agency is now demanding an easement of 58 acres that would make it impossible for the friars to build. This is the odd part ... The land is used by the friars to furnish free of charge camp grounds and free meals to hikers using the adjacent national park.

This is a horrible use of "eminent domain" but a trend we see more of today. The original concept of eminent domain was to secure land for the public security and well being where there was no alternative, for example, when land was needed to build a defensive fort or to provide right-of-way for a major road or bridge. Today eminent domain is used by government to steal land to provide camp grounds and trails. It is no longer a public safety issue. Recently in Maryland, dozens of homes were condemned for eminent domain so a golf course and resort area could be built. The builder, a Democrat fat cat, got special legislation passed by the legislature to take homes away from people whose families had lived in them for generations.

At the August 17th session of the Democrat Convention in Los Angeles the Boy Scouts were booed as they brought forth the colors. Many of the California delegates held up signs that said, "We Support Gay Boy Scouts."

The Eagle Scouts were acting as a color guard and were invited to participate in the Democrat convention. The Los Angeles Council of Boy Scouts was shocked by the behavior of the delegates, particularly those from California who sat just in front of the stage and waved the signs. But the Boy Scout leaders, in my opinion, should have known better than to accept the invitation to start with. The Democrat party does not allow delegates to the convention based on free and open elections. There is a mandatory policy of quotas based on gender, race and lifestyle. It is required by party rules that 50% of the delegates must be women. If not enough women run for seats, some are appointed and men who won are cast out. A certain percentage must also be minorities such as African-Americans, and 5% must be homosexuals. If not enough "open" homosexuals run for office, then some are appointed.

If you don’t believe it, read this quote from a Washington Times story on the convention:

Wisconsin delegate Jane Fee, 73, who was born a man but has been taking female hormones and dressing like a woman for the past dozen years, said he "came as part of the female quota." But since he never had a sex-change operation, he acknowledged he fulfills the Democratic sex quotas all by himself.
"Actually, the diversity that we show in the Democratic Party, whether it's by quota or not, indicates that we really are interested in having all of America represented by the party," said Mr. Fee, a father and grandfather who used to be known as James.

"Diversity .... whether it’s by quota or not ..." If the process of how Democrat delegates are selected extends to how we choose our congressmen and senators, the United States can no longer claim to be a nation of freely elected representatives of the people. We will cease to be a free nation.